Known in-vivo imaging devices include ingestible capsules that may capture images from the inside of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Captured images may be transmitted to an external source to be examined, for example, for pathology by a healthcare professional. In some embodiments, in-vivo devices may include various other sensors that may transmit data to an external source for monitoring and diagnosis.
An in-vivo device may collect data from different points along a body lumen, for example lumens of the GI tract, and transmit them externally for analysis and diagnosis. The GI tract is a very long and curvy path such that it may be difficult to get a good indication of where along this tract each transmitted datum was obtained.
Time bars are known to be used when reviewing data, so as to indicate to the health professional how far along the image stream he/she may have advanced. However, since the in-vivo device may stall or advance at different speeds through various sections of a body lumen, for example, the GI tract, it may not be positively determined in some cases where or at what distance along the GI tract was a particular datum, for example an image, captured. In addition, on the time bar there may be no indication as to when the device may have reached certain anatomical milestones, for example, the duodenum, the cecum, or other anatomical locations in the GI tract.
Localization methods have been applied. Some localization methods may indicate the spatial position of the device in space at any given time. Although this information together with the time log may give the health professional a better indication of the rate at which the device has advanced it may still be difficult to correlate the spatial position of the device in space to the specific anatomy of, for example, the GI tract.
An in-vivo device may collect data from more than one sensor along the very long and curvy path resulting in multiple data streams captured by the in-vivo sensor. It may be time consuming and difficult to review multiple long streams of data. In addition, it may be difficult for a health profession to get an overall view of the contents of all the data obtained.